Corporations help foot the bill for premiers meeting

Corporate sponsors have picked up just over one-third of British Columbia's bill to host the premiers meeting this week in Vancouver. The sponsors are not invited to the closed-door meetings and are not guaranteed face time with any of the premiers. But they receive tickets to a reception, dinner and entertainment Thursday evening at the Museum of Anthropology.

Various corporate sponsors since 2004 have made contributions to help cover the cost of premiers meetings.

"We are happy to be able to contribute to one of the premiere platforms in Canada, where leaders come together to debate and advance policies that are important to Canadians," says Natasha Bond, head of corporate communications for Amgen Canada Inc.

Premiers from every province and territory but Quebec, which sent a cabinet minister, were at the meeting. The official agenda includes discussion on health care, trade, disaster mitigation assistance and Canada-U.S. relations.

Here are the related sponsors

For health care (family health, innovation and sustainability in health care)

Insurance Brokers Association of Canada ($50,000)

Amgen – a biotech medicine company ($25,000)

Johnson & Johnson ($10,000)

R & D – Canada's Research Based Pharmaceutical Companies ($10,000)

Jobs and trade (increasing exports to China, India and other Asian countries)

TransCanada ($25,000)

Prince Rupert Port Authority ($25,000)

CN ($25,000)

Encana ($10,000)

Spectra Energy ($5,000)

Canadian Pacific ( $10,000)

Port Metro Vancouver ($10,000)

Disaster relief

Borealis Infrastructure ($10,000)

After hours:

Canada's National Brewers – Labatt, Molson-Coors Sleeman ($25,000)

Other sponsors:

Cisco – computer technology ($10,000)

Intuit – financial software ($5,000)

YVR ($10,000)

TransLink ($5,000)

Wines of British Columbia ($5,000)

In-kind sponsorships:

Island Spirits Distillery

Ethical Bean

RBC hosts premiers at the RBC Canadian Open golf tournament

EA Sports, which develops sports video games

Live Edge Design, which builds furniture from salvage wood.